Calendar for September 18th, 2013

Ember Days

Upcoming Ember Days are February 25, 27, 28. The Almanac traditionally marks the four periods formerly observed by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches for prayer, fasting, and the ordination of clergy. These Ember Days are the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays that follow in succession after (1) the First Sunday in Lent; (2) Whitsunday/Pentecost; (3) the Feast of the Holy Cross, September 14; and (4) the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13. The word ember is perhaps a corruption of the Latin quatuor tempora, "four times."
Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for three successive months; for example, in the case of September's Ember Days: Wednesday, September 17, forecasts the weather for October; Friday, September 19, for November; and Saturday, September 20, for December.

1500s

1502: Christopher Columbus landed in what is now Costa Rica

1670s

1679: New Hampshire territory separated from Massachusetts

1700s

Born 1709: Samuel Johnson (author)

1790s

1793: The cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., was laid

1850s

1851: The first edition of "The New York Daily Times" went on sale. The paper later dropped "Daily" from its title

1880s

Born 1883: Elmer Henry Maytag (manufacturer)

Born 1888: Archie "Grey Owl" Belaney (conservationist)

1900s

Born 1901: Harold Clurman (director)

Born 1905: Greta Garbo (actress)

1920s

Born 1920: Jack Warden (actor)

1930s

1932: Shirley Temple made her film debut, at the age of 3, in War Babies

1937: First nighttime skywriting in the U.S.

Born 1939: Frankie Avalon (singer & actor)

Born 1939: Fred Willard (actor)

1950s

Born 1950: Darryl Sittler (hockey player)

1955: What had previously been The Toast of the Town on CBS TV since 1948 became The Ed Sullivan Show

1955: Final day of streetcar service in Winnipeg, Manitoba

1970s

Died 1970: Jimi Hendrix (musician)

Born 1971: Jada Pinkett Smith (actress)

Born 1973: James Marsden (actor)

1973: The UN accepts East Germany, West Germany and the Bahamas as members

1975: Fugitive Patty Hearst was arrested in San Francisco after spending more than six months with the Symbionese Liberation Army

Born 1979: Alison Lohman (actress)

1980s

Died 1980: Katherine Anne Porter (author)

1983: George Meegan finished an almost seven-year long walk, from the tip of South America to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska